I know I’ve been very fortunate, because I’ve had relatively good health for most of the time since I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. As I describe in the page about this blog, my symptoms kept getting worse and worse during the first three years after my 1996 diagnosis, but in 1999 I found the combination of standard and alternative treatments that put my Crohn’s into remission and gave me my life back. Since then I’ve had a few fairly mild flares, but I’ve been drug and pain free for almost four years.
Because I’ve been so fortunate health-wise, it’s been a long time since I have needed to practice the suggestions I write about. Now I know those suggestions are good ones, because many people have told me how helpful they’ve been. But last week I found out firsthand that there is a big difference between recommending them to a client or describing them in posts, and being in major pain from a flare-up and struggling to do my best to use them.
The flare happened10 days ago and it turned my world upside down. After almost four years in remission, I had the mindset that for all intents and purposes I had beaten Crohn’s. But for some reason, some foods that hadn’t bothered me before (broccoli and almond cheese), triggered inflammation and spasms in the lower right side of my abdomen. While I can’t prove it, I’m convinced that the fragile emotional state I was in at the time was a major factor. But whatever the cause, all of a sudden I faced the same uncertain future that is all too common for people with chronic illnesses: would the pain lessen or would it get worse (it was a seven on a scale of one to ten, which was more than enough to keep me from getting much sleep that night)?
I did my best to follow my own advice, especially in giving myself lots of hugs and compassion. I would give myself a B+, maybe even an A- 🙂 I’m glad to say that my flare is almost completely behind me. But it was a great opportunity for me to use my own suggestions, and more than that it was a firsthand reminder of how truly difficult living with a chronic illness is for many people. I had a lot of compassion for you and them before; today I have even more.
